National Affairs: Off San Diego

Ships of war, built to destroy, always look proof against destruction,
especially in dock or at anchor. The kind of thing that can happen to
them when least expected happened last week aboard the aircraft carrier
Langley, at her dock in San Diego, Calif. Other ships of war in the
harbor heard an explosion, saw a sheet of flame. Smoke poured from a
gaping hole in the Langley's side abaft her bridge. Three sailors who
had been working in a launch slung from the Langley's davits, struggled
in the water.